Inside Bradley Cooper's desperate and dogged fight for Oscars glory: From weeping on camera to sharing stories about naked showers, ALISON BOSHOFF lays bare the wild depths the Maestro star has sunk to in frantic FIFTH attempt at Best Actor gold

Nobody has worked harder – or plumbed greater depths of personal revelation – than likeable actor, director and producer Bradley Cooper, who is in dogged pursuit of a Best Actor Oscar this year, at the fifth time of asking.

His film Maestro, about the life of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, is nominated in seven categories and Cooper, 49, has campaigned so hard for it that he's ended up discussing naked showers with his father, his six-year-old daughter talking to him when he's on the toilet, and posed for a magazine cover in an icy river in just his underwear.

He even wept on camera when discussing how much he 'missed' Bernstein, who he actually never met. While Bernstein's adult children looked on.

Netflix has been equally busy – or is that desperate? – spending a figure placed by sources at 'at least' $20 million on trying to propel Cooper into the winner's circle, in a year when the atomic epic Oppenheimer has unstoppable momentum.

Nobody has worked harder – or plumbed greater depths of personal revelation – than Bradley Cooper, who is in dogged pursuit of a Best Actor Oscar this year, at the fifth time of asking. Pictured: He lost out on the Oscar in 2014 for Best Supporting Actor

His film Maestro (pictured), about the life of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, is nominated in seven categories and Cooper, 49, has campaigned hard for it 

The streamer has an equal hunger for Oscars, having never won best picture, although there is talk that it had agreed to a certain level of promotion for Maestro in order to land the prestige project in the first place.

In one week earlier this year, Netflix sent out gifts of Maestro chocolates, coffee table books and vinyl records to media.

Meanwhile, for months it has been spending big on billboards all around Hollywood – not to mention $90,000-a-time 'For Your Consideration' adverts in the trade magazines, also for months.

There was also a Bernstein concert in the Lincoln Center in New York in February, at the peak of the awards voting season.

That's when Cooper pulled his stripped-to-his pants stunt which landed him on the cover of the New York Times magazine.

The feature, which included other Oscars nominees, was ostensibly about what actors do in their down-time, but obviously all anyone wanted to talk about was Bradley Cooper and his Oscar hunger.

Days later, he made an appearance on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, during which he laid bare - quite literally - his love of being naked in his own home, revealing that he used to shower naked with his father. 

In an equally stunning revelation, he went on to reveal that he and his daughter Lea, whom he shares with his supermodel ex Irina Shayk, regularly chit chat while he is on the toilet. 

'We talk where I'm on the toilet, she's in the bathtub; that's sort of the go-to,' he confessed. 

Sadly for him, it looks like all the activity has resulted in a freeze-out, with bookies reckoning he has around a one per cent chance of winning.

That's despite having talked ever since the actors strike finished in November about how devoted he was to the project, spending six years learning how to conduct, how he wrote, produced and directed it, the pains he took over the physical and vocal resemblance and so forth.

In February, Cooper pulled his stripped-to-his pants stunt which landed him on the cover of the New York Times magazine

He even wept on camera when discussing how much he 'missed' Bernstein, who he actually never met 

He itched so to promote the film that he actually attended the New York Film Festival Screening of the film 'as a guest' during the strike period, even though he wasn't allowed to walk the red carpet, or speak, or be photographed.

Cooper has previously been nominated for the Best Actor award at the Oscars for Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Sniper (2014) and A Star Is Born (2018).

He was also tipped for Best Supporting Actor in American Hustle (2013) but lost out once again.

The onscreen star previously made his feelings very clear when he didn't receive any Oscars love for his directorial debut in 2018's A Star Is Born.

The movie was a critical success and nominated for eight Academy Awards, but Bradley said he was 'embarrassed' because he wasn't up for Best Director. 

The actor-filmmaker opened up during Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square, confessing: 'I was embarrassed. 

'I was at a coffee shop in New York City and looked down at my phone and Nicole [Caruso, his publicist] has told me congratulations and said what we had been nominated for.

'They didn't even give me the bad news. I was embarrassed because I felt I hadn't done my job.'

Cillian Murphy, who took part in a brisk shoot to play J Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, is a total contrast. 

He loathes campaigning - there are dozens of TikToks of his bored face in interviews – and has said of the press tour system: 'I think it's a broken model. The model is – everybody is so bored.'

Cooper has previously been nominated for - but missed out on - the Best Actor award at the Oscars for Silver Linings Playbook in 2013 (left) and American Sniper in 2015 (right)

The onscreen star previously made his feelings very clear when he didn't receive any Oscars love for his directorial debut in 2018's A Star Is Born (pictured at the award ceremony)

A Star Is Born was a critical success and nominated for eight Academy Awards, but Bradley said he was 'embarrassed' because he wasn't up for Best Director (pictured with Lady Gaga in the movie) 

He was actually pleased when the strike hit just as Oppenheimer opened. Oh - and he's a shoo-in to win.

A spokesman for Netflix says that they 'never' discuss budgets. 

An insider says: 'A figure of $20m is entirely possible for marketing on what is their key awards title this year. Their total marketing budget stretches well into 10 figures.'

Michael Niederman, professor of cinema at Columbia College Chicago, said: 'I understand how extraordinarily proud he is of the work he did on Maestro. 

'I get that - it's a personal, well-crafted piece that means the world to him. But if I don't see a picture of Bradley Cooper for six months, that will be OK.'

Michael Shulman, who wrote Oscar Wars, said: 'I just feel like the Bradley Cooper media machine backfired on him. 

'Some of his quotes are hilarious – he's giving interviews about walking around naked in his house. He's made a number of mis-steps. Netflix put a lot of money behind it but it did not work. There is a perception that he's a try-hard.'

Netflix reputedly spent $40 million on trying to get an Best Picture Oscar for Roma in 2019, twice the film's budget, but failed.

This year, film head Scott Stuber has just left with incoming Dan Lin expected to make far fewer original films – 30 rather than 80. 

There is also talk of Netflix possibly spinning of a prestige awards division, like Fox did with Searchlight pictures, now a part of Disney.